Feldenkrais® Is Not Therapy

Most people come to see a Feldenkrais Practitioner^® for the same reasons they might go to a doctor or a physical therapist or an acupuncturist or any number of other people who are expected to evaluate and administer or prescribe “treatment” for whatever problem or issue is causing trouble (i.e. back pain, neck pain, problems with a joint—whether caused by injury, surgery, mis-use or any other reason—difficulties with balance, help in recovering from a stroke or other neurological “damage,” etc.). Further, most of the people we see have already sought help through least a couple of other modalities. Perhaps they’ve been to a doctor who has prescribed physical therapy. Or they may have seen an acupuncturist or tried to have their problem massaged away. Some people have tried many other avenues looking for possible solutions to their problem before they come to see me at FeldenkraisWorks (www.feldenkraisworks.com).

And because so many of my clients come to me having been through the medical (both mainstream and alternative) mill, they are used to being told what to do to solve their problem. "Do these exercises three times a day." "Take one a day until the prescription is used up." "You need to strengthen your hamstrings and all will be well." "All you need to do is stretch your hamstrings—that'll do the trick." "Back surgery will solve the problem." "Knee surgery will solve the problem." "Hip surgery…." And on and on and on.

Our modern culture has led us to believe that where our bodies are concerned, doctors and therapists and practitioners all know (or are supposed to know) how to solve nearly any problem. And when folks come to see me, even though it's often because all of the things that those other professionals have prescribed have not worked, still they are looking for one more person to tell them what to do to solve their problem.

As a Feldenkrais Practitioner, I've seen a lot of people with a lot of different difficulties. Through experience, I've learned that for some people there are some things that I can tell them to do that will help alleviate their problem. And sometimes I do that.

And I always have second thoughts about doing it. Because what we who practice the Feldenkrais Method^® want to do is to help people to discover for themselves how best to solve their own problems. That sounds like a circuitous, even officious stance. After all, if I know what to do, why don't I just tell my clients and be done with it? In the simplest terms, it's like the old adage, "Give a man a fish and you feed him today, but teach him how to use a fishing pole and you feed him for life." I'd much rather my clients engage in the process of healing themselves, rather than leaving it to me to do it for them. And for that, they don't need to learn "what to do." Instead, they need to learn the Feldenkrais Method so they can begin the process of self-improvement that heals all—a process that, once begun, never needs to end.

To be continued in future posts….

A Very Special ATM Class -- Thursday, 8/4/11 @ The Feldenkrais Institute

A few months back I was taking an ATM taught by a Feldenkrais^® practitioner I'd never met before. During the lesson, we were walking at one point and she mentioned sensing the "strong connection" between the heel and C-7 (the seventh cervical vertebrae). That sounded familiar to me but at that moment, I couldn't sense much more than a vague connection between either of my heels and the base of my neck. A few years ago I took a couple of advanced trainings with a terrific Feldenkrais trainer who asked us to sense (we were walking again) how the force in walking could move "up and through" the skeleton. During the five or six days I spent in these workshops I learned a lot about myself but my ability to manifest and sense a movement upward and through my skeleton while I walked remained somewhat murky.

I pulled out a lesson last week that I'd not looked at for several years. It's called "Walking Backward" and to my surprise, both of those concepts are directly addressed by Dr. Feldenkrais in the lesson (there are two very similar versions that he recorded). Here are a couple of quotes:

There are two movements in the hip joint, two unusual movements. The foot goes to press the floor, but the body and the head do not go down. They go higher up...It is built in the hip joint such that there is a point that moves so the leg goes down, pushes down, and the rest of the body goes up, forward a bit and higher in relation to the hip joint.¹

This is because the hip joint shifts so as to make a special line that joins the back of the neck, the base of the skull, with the heel.²

Preparing the lesson was the first time I put it all together--Dr. Feldenkrais is saying that the hip joint is actually structured so that it can transmit force in two directions, down through the leg while, at the same time (when properly organized), moving the pelvis such that force is directed upward through the spine. That concept, as I continued doing the lesson, brought the sensation of my spine--from its base to my neck--chest and head moving "up and through" during walking like never before and, at the same time, the connection between my heel, hip joint and the base of the skull was made crystal clear. Walking became lighter, freer, simpler, in a way I'd not experienced before.

I'd like to share that experience with you on Thursday night. The open class at 5:30 will be a lovely, simple lesson that is designed to systematically release muscular holding throughout the body to better enable lengthening along the entire spine. At 6:30, we'll do Walking Backward. I invite you to come join me and experience these fundamental but oftentimes elusive sensory experiences that will change, in remarkable ways, how you experience and think about walking.

This Advanced ATM class (like all of them) is for people who are relatively pain-free and physically able. While it's not physically challenging, it's a standing lesson and pain will get in the way of the delicate sensory work needed to experience the lesson fully. If you've been wondering about the advanced class, but are not sure if you're "up to it," this is one to try.

Please join me this Thursday, August 4th at 6:30pm at The Feldenkrais Institute of New York, 134 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor, New York NY 10001; for more information, call 212-727-1014 or register for class online here.

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¹Alexander Yanai lessons, Volume 9, Part B, pg. 3013

²Alexander Yanai lessons, Volume 8, Part A, pg. 2434

Advanced ATM Class: After you "get better" why not keep getting better?

On Thursday, June 16th, I'm going to begin teaching an ongoing advanced ATM class at The Feldenkrais Institute of New York. Here's why:

Most of the people I see in my Feldenkrais^® practice come to me with some sort of difficulty—they're recovering from an injury, they're in pain, they're trying to find an alternative to surgery, they want to restore some functional ability they've lost, they want to improve their balance—there are any number of reasons. And, after a time, most of those folks feel that they've come to terms with that initial difficulty. Often the injured part once again regains its rightful place in their self-image, the lost function returns and/or the pain goes away. Sometimes, the difficulty is only diminished but not erased but my client comes to terms with that. They feel better at having found improvement and a way to manage their lives in a way that's more comfortable and fulfilling.

And, then, having gotten what they came for… many (maybe most) people stop. I don't see them again.

Or sometimes I don't see them again until some new difficulty crops up. Or they do something that aggravates the old injury and they come back to "get fixed" again. I'm quite happy to provide people with that for which they've come to see me: usually, relief and a greater facility to live their lives in a manner more like they want.

But what this means is that, when we who practice at The Feldenkrais Institute take all of our clients together, we are seeing—both individually and in class—relatively few people who feel they are physically "well." There are exceptions to this, of course. From time to time, I get a Feldenkrais practitioner on my table—they are usually feeling good. They come to me looking to improve. We seem to see more than our fair share of dancers, when you balance dance against all the other professions in which our clients engage. And while I think it's fair to say that most dancers are usually injured in some way, even if it's minor ;-), most often they come to us functioning at a level that still allows them to dance. They, too, come simply looking to improve. Once in a great while, I'll see an athlete who performs at a high level who is trying to find a way to eke out even more efficiency from him or herself. They are looking to improve.

This all brings to mind for me something that's easy to forget when we're working with people every day who are trying to solve problems: Feldenkrais is not therapy. (I'll delve into that idea more deeply in another post.)

When teaching Awareness Through Movement^® at The Institute (and the same holds true for most other places I've taught), there is always a mix of people in class. Some people feel pretty good; some might be in a great deal of pain; some people cannot use one or another part of their body at all. This means that, in an effort to make everyone in class as "comfortable" as possible, we're often teaching classes that are fairly simple. In an attempt to give everyone the best experience possible, we usually try to take away the temptation to "do" something that's difficult or might cause certain people discomfort were they to "push" themselves to accomplish a more complex or physically challenging lesson. This idea of keeping classes on the simple side works for everyone because in even the simplest class there is always new information to be mined about your organization, even if you've done that class or ones like it, many times before.

But what that means is there is a whole side of Feldenkrais that is rarely explored, and when it is, it is most often within a gathering of other Feldenkrais practitioners or students in a Feldenkrais teacher training program. Dr. Feldenkrais was an athlete. He was awarded the first Black Belt in Judo in Europe (I believe sometime during the 1930s). Before suffering the knee injury that began his inquiry that led to the development of the Feldenkrais Method^®, he was an accomplished soccer player.

We have transcripts of about 1,000 lessons that Dr. Feldenkrais taught in Israel. Some of them are quite difficult and are rarely taught in public classes. Some of them involve highly complex movements. Some of them ask for muscular strength in areas some of our students simply do not have. Others involve very little movement but require a somewhat advanced level of awareness to get the maximum intended benefit.

I'm looking to provide clients of The Institute with a challenge, with a way to continue their relationship with the Feldenkrais Method after they "get better." Feldenkrais can be a life-long learning tool that will keep you supple, flexible, physically efficient, and better able to sense yourself and use yourself more sensibly. In short, continuing your relationship with Feldenkrais after you "get better" will keep you feeling young(er).

So, once you "get well" come join us on Thursday evenings at 6:30 and see where else Feldenkrais can take you. There will be an open class taught every Thursday at 5:30 that will provide a simpler lesson based on the same theme as the lesson to be taught in the advanced class. You are welcome (even encouraged) to take both, as the 5:30 class will be a great "prep" for the advanced class. You'll be happier in the advanced class if you hold off on attending until you are feeling well and are free of pain (or at least, nearly so). If you have any questions about that, just ask me.

See you on Thursday evenings at The Feldenkrais Institute of New York.